PSA tests important in finding prostate cancer
Dr. Barnett Kramer, an NIH scientist, complains that PSA has not been shown to reduce mortality from prostate cancer.
The real problem from prostate cancer is not mortality but morbidity from the metastases to bone that hurts like hell for three or four years before you finally get dead.
The Associated Press article (April 27) was helpful in pointing out that many things besides cancer affect the PSA and it’s important that we use our brains and interpret the PSA rather than just doing a prostate biopsy to protect from litigation.
We’ve learned a lot from serial, annual or even semiannual PSAs in patients with a strong family history of the disease. As more of us get older, PSA becomes even more important in monitoring testosterone supplementation and improving the quality of life.
And the article is correct, the lower your PSA the better.
John R. Dyers Jr., M.D.
Siler City
Comments (2)
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Reminds me of the time a doctor instructed my daddy to get a MRI - the good doctor's office set the appointment up and even provided daddy with a map showing specific driving directions to the privately owned MRI facility - daddy later learned the good doctor and several of the good doctor's buddies were investors in the MRI facility. Would you like fries with that?
Posted on May 6, 2009 7:41 AM
PSA tests are not easy to interpret. There are a lot of false alarms with PSA. That's why it's become controversial in the medical community.
Biopsy mapping of the prostate is painful. My dad underwent this twice for an elevated PSA, and his urologist wanted to do it a third time. But Dad was asymptomatic, and his internist decided it was unnecessary to keep putting him through that procedure.
Like any other lab test, the results need to be taken into consideration with the big picture.
Posted on May 6, 2009 11:37 AM